Feyli Kurds: The cost of disunity in post-Saddam Iraq

Shafaq News

By Ali Hussein Feyli

Those who fly beyond the orbit of hope embody a rare example of human willpower that defies all circumstances and forces.

Hope is not merely the endurance of hardship; it is a spirit that runs deep in the hearts of the Feyli Kurds. At its strongest, it transforms suffering into opportunity and despair into a chance to reclaim a forgotten legacy.

Yet, two decades after Saddam’s fall, we remain scattered across the political map, weighed down by internal rivalries. True, a lack of resources limited our ability to build modern institutions, but the greater setback was our hesitation to respond effectively to change. That delay weakened the very foundations upon which progress might have been built.

Our refusal to embrace internal plurality, our insistence on clinging to outdated models, and our failure to unify diverse experiences under a collective will—particularly in elections—cost us dearly. We lost not only internal cohesion but also the support of regional and international partners.

Ethnicity and sect may serve our cause, but when weaponized as tools of exclusion, they erode belonging, fuel division, and open the door to political tensions dressed in the cloak of legitimacy.

The lesson of history is clear: only by absorbing the failures of the past can we escape the cycle of repeated defeat. Without critical, collective self-examination, we remain trapped.

Withdrawal, in this context, is no solution. It is a fragile posture—empty slogans, denial of reality, and an abdication of responsible decision-making.

But challenges also awaken a human consciousness. For the Feyli individual, awareness of threats is inseparable from awareness of the value of identity itself.

Our greatest weakness has not only been the absence of unity in protecting our cultural, linguistic, and historical identity, but also the political, social, and economic restrictions that compounded the damage. Once vibrant and resilient, our identity now shows signs of strain under immense pressure. Without real support and recognition of its worth, political maneuvers alone cannot deliver renewal.

Today, exhausted by setbacks and stripped of trust, we may feel unprepared to engage in any decisive project. We may no longer hear the voice that calls: “No to closed realities, no to surrender, no to defeat.”

Our eyes must not remain fixed on a distant future. We must take flight to shape it ourselves, breaking artificial boundaries, transforming repressed dreams into luminous realities, and grounding our aspirations in trust and collective responsibility.

Because the success of any project—including elections—depends on one thing alone: our ability, as Feylis, to stand together and act together.

This article was originally written in Arabic.